[TriLUG] My slow linux machine

[Jon Carnes]

On Sat, 2004-02-14 at 13:52, James McDermott wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> This is my 1st ever post and I am a newbe.
> 
> I am running RedHat 9 on a Micron Millennia Mme box that has a 233 Mhz 
> procesor, 256 MB RAM (Max Allowed), and an IBM 6.4 GB Ultra DMA /33 IDE 
> hard drive. The machine only has linux installed (no windows, no dual 
> boot).
> 
> When I start an application, it takes considerable time to load the 
> application. Mozilla(1.2.1) takes about 8 seconds, GIMP(1.2.5) takes 
> about 15 seconds, OpenOfficeWriter takes about 25 seconds. The system 
> monitor is showing that memory is using about 246MB out of 250MB and 
> swap is using 29MB out of 510MB.
> 
> I do see where my CPU utilization goes to 100% while an application is 
> being started or while it is shutting down.
> 
> After Mozilla, OpenOffice writer, GIMP etc. are open, the response times 
> are not fast, but if you have some patience, the response times are 
> marginally acceptable. I can have many applications open and not exceed 
> my available RAM or use any significant SWAP.
> 
> I think that my problem is that I am a slow linux machine because I am 
> CPU bound?
> 
> What is the recommended CPU speed to get decent performance? I would 
> like to see OpenOffice come up in less than about 5 seconds.
> 
> Thanks, Jim McDermott

Hay Jim,  Welcome to the list.

I have a laptop that is just like your machine.  My times are all very
similar.  It is the cpu.

You can get better response times if you move to a lower demanding GUI
like Fluxbox (as opposed to Gnome or KDE), but it looks like you might
actually want to upgrade to Fedora. Several folks have commented that it
is much faster than RH9.

As a data point for you, I'm running a 1GHz AMD Duron(tm) on my
workstation and it brings up Open Office in about 6 seconds (or if I'm
running a lot of services and applications then about 12 seconds).

Oddly enough, a 233MHz box makes a much better server than a
workstation. Mine runs as a firewall/web proxy for the kids (when I'm
not doing proof of concepts for clients on it) and it does a super job.

Good Luck - and welcome to the folk!

Jon Carnes